In the field of wireless communications, performance of downlink (DL) transmission between network nodes and mobile User Equipment (UE) devices is paramount to maintain market share. Performance of a DL transmission Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) scheme depends on the transmission set clustering accuracy. Inaccuracies in transmission set clustering decisions can cause a degradation of user quality of service, e.g., in terms of downlink capacity. Inaccuracies in transmission set clustering decisions can also result in overall access network energy inefficiency. Channel estimation errors and CoMP system delays can cause inaccurate Channel Status Information (CSI) feedback and can contribute to inaccurate clustering decisions at the serving evolved Node B (eNB). In fact, UEs with higher clustering degrees can be affected more severely than UEs with lower clustering degrees by channel estimation errors and system delays. This degradation can translate into frustrated users due to a large number of dropped or low quality calls. An issue typically encountered due to estimation errors and network delays can include inaccurate CSI feedback that results in the exclusion of a potential transmission point from the CoMP cluster. This exclusion decreases the energy efficiency of the access network and degrades the user perceived quality of service in terms of data rates. Another problem resulting from inaccurate transmission clustering decision can include the use of inadequate (e.g., poor signal quality) nodes in the CoMP transmission cluster. While this inclusion can increase downlink data rates slightly, it can cause significant bits/Joule energy efficiency losses for the access network. The increased power consumption of the access network by the addition of an inadequate node may not yield corresponding capacity gains at the user side. Moreover, channel estimation filter length can be unduly increased for less CoMP dependent UEs. This increased filter length makes the computation of network operations unnecessarily complex.
One approach to resolve the above problems is to use the same filter length for all channels between the UE and the nodes in the CoMP measurement set. However, this approach unnecessarily increases computation complexity, especially for nodes that are less likely to be included in a CoMP transmission set.
Therefore, selection of CoMP transmission sets and channel estimation filters can be improved upon.